If you’ve been following along with our Borderlands 3 coverage then you know that we love a good Easter egg here ate Prima Games. In keeping with the spirit of the Halloween pieces that we’re going to be running this month, we’ve decided to let our horror-aficionado sides get a little playtime as well. Now, we’re combining our two great loves to bring you a list of the best horror Easter eggs in games.
Best Horror Easter Eggs in Games – Dead Luigi
This was an easy one for us to identify, because of the fact that horror seems so incongruous with Nintendo titles until you remember that Luigi’s Mansion is probably the most haunted game in existence. It’s got all of the hallmarks of a good horror game, just dressed up in a more kid-friendly shell than usual. Well, until Luigi encounters a ghost of himself who appears to have died via hanging. Talk about ridiculously macabre and frankly, horrifying. There’s nothing quite like coming face to face with a specter of yourself after you’ve died in one of the worst ways possible, so this one gets horror cred for being purely traumatizing on many levels.
Best Horror Easter Eggs in Games – Demonic Dog in Red Dead Redemption
When it’s just you and the tumbleweed out there in the Wild West, you’re bound to go a little stir crazy over time. Red Dead Redemption always had a pretty varied cast of oddball characters who were packed to the gills with the eccentricities of cowboys everywhere, and the series has always prided itself on little environmental cues to add nuance build the world. Enter: Tumbleweed in Gaptooth Ridge. If you’re wandering around at night, you’ll be doomed to hear the caterwauling of the local hound dog. If you’re particularly savvy, you’ll also find some scrawlings in the local church which imply that the dog has been possessed in some way. Talk about the curious incident of the dog in the night time.
Best Horror Easter Eggs in Games – Killer in Grand Theft Auto V
This one is a lot more involved than the other two horror easter eggs that we’ve listed so far, but it’s incredibly messed up. Essentially, if you’re so inclined, you too can live your true crime podcast dreams by following the clues of a killer in GTA: V. If you managed to see the events through to their grisly conclusion, you’ll find out that a woman was murdered by her erstwhile husband because she didn’t let him follow his dream. Yikes. Now, those venturing to Mt. Gordo will be subject to a rather fantastic bloody display spelling out said husband’s name, and if you’re super unlucky, you’ll see the specter of his wife too.
Best Horror Easter Eggs in Games – James in Silent Hill 2
This particular easter egg was likely the most horrifying to us when we discovered it. Those who have cracked into Silent Hill 2 will know what we mean, and we reckon this is a great one because it’s not just grisly (corpses, big whoop) but it’s also something which affects you on an existential level. Yes, we’re talking about how most of the deceased that the player character (James) stumbles upon in Silent Hill 2 look horrifically similar to him. We’re talking the same banal dress code, build, and more. Now, this begs the question of why and how these images are manifesting. Is it because of a deep-set self-loathing that James has for himself to the point where it’s palatable or preferred to see himself dead in a multitude of ways? Is it something more or less sinister? There’s just a whole lot to unpack here when it comes to the psychology of James but spoilers: none of it could possibly be good.
Now that you’ve got our list of the best horror easter eggs found in games, we wanna hear from you! What are some absolute spooky standouts in video game canon that have caught your eye? Let us know by tweeting us @PrimaGames, and check out some of our other Halloween content, including this list of the best horror games on the Nintendo Switch.
